“It’s the highest form of dressmaking, but for men . . . I hope it’s going to define a new sensuality, a new sexuality.” This statement is mushed together from a podcast John Galliano released to press, fragments of a stream of consciousness conversation about technique, and why he’s elevated his Artisanal men’s collection to couture level. Part of it was down to the epiphany about the shifting codes of formalwear he had seen at the Met Gala. “Seeing the youth present, and their interpretation of black-tie . . . a seismic change from the last time,” he said; another part, his daily dialogues with the interns in his studio at Maison Margiela. And plainly, the biggest: He was just raring to exercise his skill and imagination in a fresh corner of a field he knows so well.

Remember, Galliano comes from the gender-bending club generation of the ’80s, so having his say in the new age of gender fluidity is timely. But there were no boys in dresses on his runway—that’s been done by the new kids in London. Instead, the collection put forward a different sense of masculinity, based around the typologies of British tailoring, hunting, and fishing, and then accessing all the richness of decoration and cutting that is normally the preserve of women’s haute couture ateliers. That, and vinyl and leather. Result: an extreme, sexy glamour.